EM Strasbourg Business School is leading a unique international consortium between five European and Australian universities

EM Strasbourg Business School is leading a consortium consisting of three European and two Australian universities. Their project was ranked number one by the European Commission and the Australian government among 18 worldwide applications and will be allocated $1 million Australian, i.e. €700,000.

This cluster aims at creating new partnerships between European (French, Hungarian, Italian) and Australian universities. It is part of the European Commission's EU ICI-ECP call for proposals launched in 2012 and was presented to the "Education, audiovisual and culture" Executive Agency (EACEA) in May 2013. In a few weeks (december 2013), a kick-off meeting will take place in Strasbourg with all partners, including a meeting with key international companies and a meeting with the vice-president of the European Commission, Antonio Tajani.

There are four key elements underlining the innovative character of this international higher education programme:

• enhance dual degree mobility (with one academic year in each institution)
• integrate intensive sessions which allow a cohort of students to discover the other partner universities and to meet and work on Europe-Australasian business issues
• promote collaborative research between Australia and the EU
• ensure a strong cooperative link, with compulsory internships and a solid support from the industry

Through this consortium, the five universities concerned will be linked by twelve duals degrees.

All students selected as part of the consortium will be awarded a master's degree by their university of origin and the partner university at the end of their course. The programme begins in January 2014 and will ultimately be open to up to 80 students from the five universities.